Holly Wren

As a portrait photographer, Holly Wren’s style is dominated by the humanity of her subjects whether they are laughing or smiling, pensive or reflective, at work or at play. It’s no coincidence that this humanity is communicated through all of her work – and a short amount of time with Holly is enough to realise why;

“I love people – I’m eternally fascinated by them and I really love to get to know my subjects and help them to be as comfortable and as close to their natural selves as is possible with a whacking great camera pointing at them!”

Full of the cheery, down-to-earth good naturedness of her Northern England childhood and youth, it’s easy to forget that Holly is holding a camera at all, let alone how skilfully she wields it. Her remarkable portraiture has gained her an impressive list of clients and commissions in the short time since she turned professional after giving up a successful career in property development. Holly remembers,

“I think I knew, after getting a business management degree and going into property development, that I was really going through the motions. It was a good career, but sitting at a desk felt limiting, I wasn’t able to really express myself or help people to connect with the world.”

It was her grandfather who first sparked an interest in photography for Holly when she was very young, taking time to explain the more laborious and traditional techniques available to hobbyist photographers in the 20th century. Imbibed subtly with his enthusiasm and the wonder of photography, Holly asked her dad for a camera (an Olympus OM10) aged just ten, and has never been far from one since.

Holly Wren set up her own photography business in 2012 with the support of The Princes Trust Enterprise Programme and continues to work in affiliation with The Princes Trust as well as on a range of commercial and private commissions. If you have a project you’d like Holly to consider, would like to make a media enquiry, or you’d like to find out more about the LoveLived project, please make contact via the links below.